


voice and echo

by simplecoffee



Category: Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Movie: Ocean's Thirteen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:22:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22598524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplecoffee/pseuds/simplecoffee
Summary: They can read each other's tells, but they haven'ttalkedin a while.
Relationships: Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 114
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	voice and echo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lake (beyond_belief)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/gifts).



He hauls Danny up into the vent, and chokes on a gasp of pain.

Danny slots the grate back into place as he blinks back momentary tears. Rusty knows he saw him flinch, felt his shoulder nearly buckle as he helped him scramble up. Things haven't gone quite to plan this evening, but that's almost nostalgic in a two-man job like this; hiding in a security blind spot, one of them hurting, feels a little like old times. Flannel still fits when you've moved on to silk; sometimes, of nights, it still calls your name.

"Do you - " Danny starts, and Rusty shushes him, lifts his left forefinger to his mouth, his right hand following more slowly to offer the duct tape he's asking for. Danny takes it, tapes the grate securely down, and puts it back in his own pocket, breaths slowing down in time with his.

"Hey," he starts again, barely a whisper, eyes filling with concern, and Rusty shakes his head where he's laid it on the cool concrete and mouths a quick _no_ \- no, I'm fine, no, don't start this, no, be quiet, we need to be quiet. Danny acquiesces with a frown, and offers a hand to pet his hair.

Rusty lets him. He leans his head against his stomach, drapes his injured arm across his legs, and sighs when his fingers drift from his temple down to his throbbing shoulder, questioning, worried. They're good at talking without really _talking_ , the two of them, always have been, even though they're well into their forties now and Danny's divorced from Tess twice over, and Rusty's got a fair few streaks of gray mixed in among all the blond. They still know all each other's tells. Still call each other's names, when they can.

They haven't _talked_ for a while, he and Danny. Not since they kissed by the river the day before bringing down the Bank - the day before they knew Reuben would really, truly make it. Danny kissed him for the first time in a decade, Rusty kissed him back, and Danny dared to look _flattered_ , dared to look ready to marry him then and there, at a stupid time of day, where the Dunes used to be. They went back to the job instead, but they went hand in hand; Danny's looked at him like that from time to time in the past few weeks, has stroked his hair like he meant it, like he's waiting for Rusty to give him a cue. Honestly, it's been nice for a while, to see Danny lost for words.

He doesn't have to look up now to know he's wearing that same expression. The wide-open, adoring one he's worn so much for Tess that Rusty'd half tried to forget the good old days when it was meant for him. It's strange getting used to having it back, but it fits him still, like a well-made suit. Like Danny's hands still fit his jaw. Like Danny's mouth fits his. It would be easy to play him a little, to hint that he's met with Isabel or kissed Roman again, but Rusty doesn't have it in him - doesn't think he ever has. He's waited Danny out this long; he'll wait him out a little more.

"Security's gone," says Danny quietly, and braces Rusty's shoulder as they make their escape. He doesn't really need it - he's dealt with worse sprains alone - but he thanks him anyway, squeezing his wrist as they pile into Basher and Reuben's smallest vintage Chevy, and drive off into the night, heading for the Malloys' new café.

Turk and Virgil are both awake, and ply them with delicious experimental pastries and rather less successful card tricks. They _talk_ , really talk, all four of them, for the first time in so long, and Virgil squabbles with Turk over painkillers and making him a sling out of one of their scarves, and Danny drinks tea out of a dainty little cup with his pinky out, and Rusty reaches for his hand across the table and laughs; they've got pockets full of amethysts tonight, and it's occurred to him that not one of them is in a ring.

"Rusty," Danny says, like he's read his tells. Pauses, and then, "I love - "

" - Yeah," says Rusty. "Yeah, I love you too."


End file.
